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Milton Friedman on what government is for

Friedman on the functions government must perform, the ones it should not attempt, and why its solutions so often cost more than the problem.

15 passages in the archive7 checked against the source8 not yet checked
  1. It's very much easier to introduce restrictions and restraints than it is to remove them. It's easier to pass a law than it is to repeal a law and so over the course of time you tend to impose these chains and restraints on yourselves mostly for good reasons. The initial objectives are always good that doesn't mean the outcome is.
    The Open Mind
    Interview, 1977, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy” (May 3, 1977)
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  2. The existence of a free market does not of course eliminate the need for government. On the contrary, government is essential both as a forum for determining the 'rule of the game' and as an umpire to interpret and enforce the rules decided on.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, 2002 edition, p. 15
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  3. From the political point of view, increased spending may initially be designed to be temporary but few things become more permanent than temporary spending. Hence, the economists are in fact calling for a still higher level of government spending yet, in my view, reducing the scope of government is our most important single objective.
    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1992, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, The Region, Interview by David Levy, June 1, 1992
    Checked against the sourceRead the transcript
  4. In a free society, it is hard for “good” people to do “good,” but that is a small price to pay for making it hard for “evil” people to do “evil,” especially since one man's good is anther's evil.
    A Friedman Doctrine—The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits
    Column, 1970, The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970, Section SM, p. 17
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  5. How can thinking people believe that a government that cannot deliver the mail can deliver gas better than Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Gulf and the rest?
    FEO and the Gas Lines
    Column, 1974, Newsweek, March 4, 1974; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, February 27, 1974, pp. 4559 to 4560, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who gives it as the column of “Newsweek columnist, Dr. Milton Friedman, in the March 4, 1974, issue”; reprinted again in Extensions of Remarks, April 30, 1974, p. 12454, by Representative Steven D. Symms, from The Freeman (Foundation for Economic Education), Congressional Record, February 27, 1974, p. 4560
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  6. The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.
    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1973, Playboy
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  7. None of this means that government does not have a very real function. Indeed, the tragedy is that because government is doing so many things it ought not to be doing, it performs the functions it ought to be performing badly. The basic functions of government are to defend the nation against foreign enemies, to prevent coercion of some individuals by others within the country, to provide a means of deciding on our rules, and to adjudicate disputes.
    Why Government Is the Problem
    Journal article, 1993, Hoover Institution Press, Essays in Public Policy no. 39, p. 6
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  8. We have heard much these past few years of how the government protects the consumer. A far more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.
    An Economist's Protest: Columns in Political Economy
    Book, 1966, p. 107
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  9. The key need in policy-setting is to reverse the growth of government!
    An Economist's Protest: Columns in Political Economy
    Book, 1966, p. xvi
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  10. The need for government in these respects arises because absolute freedom is impossible. However attractive anarchy may be as a philosophy, it is not feasible in a world of imperfect men.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 2 The Role of Government in a Free Society, p. 25
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  11. I'm not in favor of no government. You do need a government. But by doing so many things that the government has no business doing, it cannot do those things which it alone can do well. There's no other institution in my opinion that can provide us with protection of our life and liberty. However, the government performs that basic function poorly today, precisely because it is devoting too much of its efforts and spending too much of our income on things which are harmful.
    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1992, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, The Region, Interview by David Levy, June 1, 1992
    Checked against the sourceRead the transcript
  12. The reality is that if you look at every program that the government has adopted in the direction of extending its scope, it took an enormous propaganda campaign by special propaganda groups to get those measures passed. There was no underlining public demand for those measures. On the contrary, the demand had to be created, it had to be developed, it had to be produced. And it was created, it was developed, it was produced, by people… who sincerely wanted to see an expansion in the scope of government.
    Milton Friedman Speaks - Myths That Conceal Reality
    Speech, 1977
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  13. I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater.
    The Open Mind
    Interview, 1975, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “Living Within Our Means” (1975)
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  14. There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves.
    Who protects the consumer?
    Television, 1980, PBS, vol. 7
    Not yet checkedFind it at the source
  15. I think the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.
    The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem
    Book, 1975, p. 6
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